About a year ago, a co-worker I hadn’t seen in more than a decade friended me on Facebook. When she first messaged me, her note was a bit sheepish. Not because we hadn’t stayed in touch, but because we had worked together as newspaper copy editors, and she wasn’t completely comfortable reintroducing herself by using “friend” as a verb.

“I’m a little embarrassed to get back in touch by verbing you with a noun,” she wrote. “But C’est la Facebook.”

She’s so clever!

I hadn’t realized until reading her note how often I use friend and other nouns as verbs. Verbing is not a new trend, but it seems more common than ever. I sometimes find it irritating, but mostly when it’s used in business-speak. For example, a former manager never said we would talk about something, he said we’d dialogue it. That’s a little irritating, no?

What could be better? This collection gathers sixty-seven of the very best flash fiction from writers around the world. Mystery, intrigue, romance, sci-fi, horror, slice of life, humor. Just about every genre is represented and each story comes in a quick hit, flash fiction format — one thousand words or fewer.

Don’t let the short format fool you. There are some powerful stories here, including mine, “Bottom of the Ninth,” about a nervous preteen whose softball team championship rests in her pudgy little hands.

The flashes were written by members of the Friday Flash community, an online writer’s group that posts stories on their blogs and announces them via the #fridayflash hashtag on Twitter or Facebook. The variety of styles and the amount of talent included in this anthology will keep you turning the pages, and wishing for more when you’re done.